


I Can't Swim (A Bucky Barnes AU)

by revengingbarnes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Alternate Universe - Lifeguards, Bodyguard AU, Bodyguard Bucky, F/M, Fluff, Funny, Hot Lifeguard, Humor, beach vibes, lifeguard AU, lifeguard bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 05:57:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16907388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revengingbarnes/pseuds/revengingbarnes
Summary: The reader pretends to drown to grab the attention of the hot lifeguard who looks after the beach. Lies don’t last long though, and eventually it backfires.





	I Can't Swim (A Bucky Barnes AU)

“You have to stop. This is getting seriously creepy.”

You turned your head only slightly, making a face at Natasha’s words. You didn’t even move your eyes from their point of concentration, making Natasha snort.

“If you like him that much, just go and say something.” She continued talking, ruffling in her bag for something. “Gawking at him every day is doing you no good.”

You hummed a bit, having already forgotten half of what she’d said.

“Take your shirt off.” You whispered to yourself.

“What?”

“What?” You countered, blinking innocently.

“Okay, time to go for a swim.” Natasha announced, toeing off her slippers. “Are you coming or not?”

An idea was already brewing in your head. You couldn’t believe you hadn’t thought of it up until this point. But it had occurred to you suddenly and there’s no way you weren’t going through with it.

You and Natasha wandered near the shore in the shallow water for a few minutes, trying to get used to the cold temperature. Then, as you moved deeper, you nudged Natasha.

“Nat.” You hissed. “I have a plan.”

She turned to you, flaming red hair stuck to her scalp. A frown adorned her face. “A plan for what?”

“To get the hot lifeguard to notice me.” You replied. “Okay, I’m going to pretend to drown, and you have to start calling for help okay? And then-”

“Whoa whoa wait.” Natasha held a hand up to silence you. “You’re going to do what now?”

You pursed your lips, trying to make her understand. “Please, Nat. He’ll come rescue me and then we’ll talk!”

Natasha looked at you like you’d lost your mind. “You’re doing this so he’ll talk to you?”

“Yes!”

“As opposed to just walking over to where he’s sitting and introducing yourself? I don’t know, like a normal person?!”

You huffed. “Either you’re going to help me pretend to drown or I’ll just do it myself.”

“You’re insane.”

With that, you took a deep breath, ducking under the water now deep enough to support a full grown floating person.

You couldn’t hear exactly what was going on. Sounds from above the water were muffled from down here. You blinked your eyes open, trying to see what was happening. When you saw a figure rapidly swimming towards you, you let go of your nose.

Within seconds, you were pulled up by two strong hands grabbing your arms. You coughed a bit at the small amount of water that had gone up your nose, too little to make it dangerous, but enough to make you sputter. Perfect.

Yours eyes met pale blue ones when you looked up. Wet brown tendrils of hair clung to his forehead and cheeks, droplets trekking down his jaw to drip from his chin. Your hands were gripping his shoulders, his own holding you steady above the water. Your heart was beating a mile a minute.

“Are you okay?” His voice was soft compared with how huge and muscular he was. You had expected him to sound gruff, but this was a pleasant surprise.

You fought off the instinct to swim, trying to look like you had no idea what you were doing. Holding a smile was painful, and you knew you were two seconds away from drooling.

“Yeah.” You breathed out. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m-” You stopped talking in favor of staring at him again.

He smiled then, small and reassuring, and you had to refrain from melting right there.

“Let’s get you out of the water, okay?” He said, grip on you shifting so he was behind you, slowly guiding you out of the water. Your eyes caught Natasha’s and you widened them to show her your excitement about the plan working, trying to fight your smile. She rolled hers in return before shaking her head, but you could see the amusement that flickered across her face.

There were some wooden steps leading up to the small room that the lifeguard usually sat in. He plopped you down on a chair before rummaging in a bag for a towel, handing it to you. You smiled gratefully at him, wrapping it around your bare shoulders.

“You really shouldn’t go very deep into the water if you can’t swim.”

Maybe you should teach me. You huffed out a laugh, trying to form words. He was so much hotter up close.

“Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t.”

“It was a good thing your friend called for me.” He continued, turning away from you and pulling his wet shirt over his head. Your mouth dropped open at the sight, eyes tracing the muscles moving in his back, the line that ran down straight over his spine.

“…okay?” He turned back suddenly, making your stare jerk up to his face. You gritted your teeth, feeling heat rush to your face. Even though you hadn’t heard a word of what he had said, you nodded your head furiously.

He smiled at you again, grabbing another towel before drying his hair with it. You took advantage of his momentary lack of vision to check out his torso, his abs flexing as he moved the towel over his head. Sweet Jesus, this man was sculpted by the gods.

“Thanks for saving me.” You blurted out just for the sake of ending the silence.

“No problem. It’s part of the job.” He was still smiling as he pulled a dry shirt over his head. “You alright to stand up?”

You nodded, getting on your feet. You knew this meeting was about to end, even though you could have spent another hour just ogling him.

“Thanks again, uh…” You looked at him expectantly.

“Bucky. Bucky Barnes.”

You smiled, testing the name out. “Bucky.”

“I’ll see you around?” You said awkwardly, walking out of the room and onto the balcony leading to the stairs.

“I’ll be here.” He replied.

“Oh.” You remembered suddenly, taking the towel off your shoulders and holding it out for him. He shook his head.

“It’s okay. Keep it.”

You nodded, not being able to help your grin. It was a miracle how you didn’t fall as you walked down the steps on your shaky legs.

Natasha was standing at the foot of the stairs, her whole body language showing disapproval mixed with amusement.

“Was it worth it?” She asked, walking away as you fell in step with her.

“Yes.” Your voice came out squeaky with the effort of holding your excitement in. When you were out of earshot from the platform, you turned to her.

“Nat, he’s so much hotter up close!” You burst out. “Oh my god I could barely say two words because I couldn’t stop thinking about him just taking me right there and-”

“Okay!” Nat interrupted you, holding a hand up. “I really don’t want to know.”

You sighed, fighting the urge to look back at the platform.

“So you were able to pull of a near-perfect fake drowning, and the only thing you did with it was gawk at him? You can do that at a distance too, you know.”

You stared at her, thinking about her words. “I….. guess you’re right.”

“So you didn’t even get his number?”

You blinked a bit, sighing. “Should I really have gotten it? Won’t that be a bit forward? Desperate?”

Natasha snorted. “So fake drowning yourself to get his attention wasn’t desperate?”

You slapped her arm, drawing out a noise of protest from her. “He doesn’t know that!”

You both got to where your stuff lay on blankets, plopping down on it with a frown on your face. A few minutes later, you spoke up.

“I’ll have to drown again.”

Natasha turned to you, already catching on to what you meant.

“To what? Get his number?”

You nodded.

She let out an almost painful sigh, shaking her head. “I’m not even going to argue with you.”

You were formulating your next plan in your head by the time the sun was going down.

………………….

Things didn’t go exactly according to plan since that day.

You had been to the beach four more times, and thought up of creative new ways to cause disaster every time. Without fail, Bucky would come to the rescue like a knight in shining armor every time. And each time, you two would talk a bit, but that’s as far as the plans worked.

No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t work up the courage to ask him out. You would either get tongue-tied and fail to say the words, or you would realize just how amazing of a person Bucky was and chicken out yourself. By the fifth time you had ended up in Bucky’s little lifeguard room, you were in a foul mood.

“I’m sorry I keep doing this.” You muttered, slouching in on yourself. This was unbelievable. You had never had problems with asking a guy out before. You were usually quite confident. This was unprecedented for you.

Maybe it was because you had never met someone as amazing as Bucky.

Ridiculously delicious body aside, Bucky was an absolute sweetheart. You could see that he was practically made for his job. He loved helping people out and he loved making people happy. He was smart, quick and witty, on top of being very kind and understanding. You couldn’t understand for the life of you why he wasn’t annoyed by your antics up until now.

“It’s okay.” He was saying. “I’m just worried about what you’re going to do next week.”

“Next week?” You asked, looking up at him as he took the chair opposite to you. Bucky nodded.

“I’m leaving town for something for about a week, and even though there will be another lifeguard replacing me, I know I’m still going to worry about you.”

You felt your heart flutter in your chest at his words, smile fighting to make its way on your face. You couldn’t help the giddy feeling upon hearing that he would worry about you. That he would think of you while he was away.

“I’ll be fine.” You managed to reply. “I’ll stay away from the water.”

Bucky grinned, tilting his head slightly. “You’re capable of doing that?”

You gave him a blank look, making him snort. He nodded at you.

“Thanks.”

You shook your head, smiling. Ugh, if only you could just ask him out. But you knew you wouldn’t. You had kind of accepted that by now.

……………….

You didn’t really want to go to the beach when Bucky wasn’t there. Before you had noticed the lifeguard in the first place, you had always ever went with Nat because she loved swimming. And now that Bucky was gone again, it seemed pointless to actually invest time in the beach when you didn’t even like the beach that much in the first place.

You dipped under the water with your eyes closed, resurfacing in a few seconds. You let the water refresh you, watching Nat as she floated on the water. You followed her lead, front facing the sky. It was peacefully quiet for a few moments before Nat broke the silence.

“Not pretending to drown today?”

You huffed out a laugh, shaking your head. “My hot lifeguard isn’t here, so no.”

You floated in silence some more before you turned and swam further into the water. You turned back to look at Nat, watching her as she remained where she was. Your eyes flitted back to the beach, watching people move around for a bit. Your eye caught a tall figure leaning against the platform for the lifeguard, and you froze.

It couldn’t be. No. It was his day off. You squinted a bit, brushing away the wet hair that was clinging to your face and wiping your eyes. It only became clearer. It was Bucky.

“Shit.” You yelped out, ducking so only your head was above the water. Nat turned her head to look at you.

“What?” She asked, moving around a bit so she could follow your line of sight. Her eyes widened before she burst into laughter.

“Shit indeed.” She giggled out, making you slap her arm.

“It’s not funny!” You hissed. “Is there any chance he hasn’t seen me?”

“Considering he’s looking directly at us, nope.”

You groaned a bit.

“Time to face the music, Y/N.” Nat still had an amused edge to her voice, which made you want to slap her again.

“No way.” You replied. “I’m gonna stay in here until he leaves.”

Nat sighed. “Okay, that’s it.” She grabbed your arm, making you shriek as she started pulling you back to the shore.

“Are you crazy?” You tried pulling your arm away but damn, the woman was strong.

“You have to deal with this, Y/N!” She retorted. “These games have been going on for too long. Strap on a pair and go tell him how you feel!”

Before you knew it, sand was tickling your feet. You had stopped struggling by now, knowing there was no way you could escape it at this point. Nat stomped right over to where Bucky stood. He was wearing jeans and a button up, and you realized this was the first time you had seen him in something other than beach clothes.

“Well, hello.” He said. His face held a small smirk, voice filled with amusement, and you could see a dimple in his cheek from where he was biting the inside of it.

“I see you took swimming lessons in the last-” he looked down at his watch. “-19 hours.”

You sighed a bit, face molding into a sheepish smile. Nat had walked away by now, leaving you alone with Bucky. He crossed his arms, biceps straining against his shirt. If you weren’t in your current predicament, you would have admired how he looked.

“Uh, yeah.” You forced out, rubbing your arm as you shifted awkwardly on your feet. “Any chance you actually believe that?”

Bucky chuckled a bit, shaking his head. “None.”

You visibly cringed, shrugging. “Fair enough.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you could swim?”

You looked up at him, waving your arms a bit. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Bucky pursed his lips, shrugging. “The only answer I can think of is you trying to get my attention, but that doesn’t seem likely.”

You raised your eyebrows. “Doesn’t seem likely? Have you met yourself?”

Bucky stood up straighter, smiling at your sudden outburst. “So it’s true?”

You nodded, staring down at your feet. “But please don’t think I was being creepy or desperate. I mean, I was but at one point it just became too late to stop pretending, y'know?”

Bucky laughed a bit, stepping forward until he was inches from your body. You looked up at him, breath caught in your throat. His eyes were soft and held no judgement, though you could still see amusement lurking around the baby blues.

“I wanted to ask you out.” You rambled on. “But I was just so nervous. And scared that you’d say no. I mean, that would be pretty mortifying. And then I would never be able to come here again because I would only be reminded of my idiocy and I would rather gawk at you from a distance than not see you ever again so I-”

You were cut off by a warm, soft pair of lips meeting your own. You mumbled a little into Bucky’s mouth before you realized what was happening, eyes falling shut as you kissed him back. His hands grazed over your bare arms before traveling backwards to rest at the small of your back, pulling you closer. You sighed a bit, opening your mouth to allow him access. Your own fingers entangled with each other at the back of his neck, kissing him deeper.

You didn’t know how long it had passed before you pulled away, but you felt like you had lived five lifetimes in that one kiss. You looked at him, dazed, body buzzing.

“You need to learn when to shut up.” Bucky said, forehead against yours.

You felt a grin stretch across your lips. “Maybe you can teach me.”

Bucky hummed, hands squeezing your sides slightly. “Well, I was planning on teaching you how to swim, but you’ve already got that down, so.”

You groaned a bit, squeezing your eyes shut. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”

Bucky chuckled a bit. “Nope.” He said, before he kissed you again.


End file.
